The Evil Things that Villains do

Supervillains, the scourges of humanity. Their only goals are world domination or total destruction of everything we love. They all have their twisted reasoning for why they do these horrible things. Maybe their family was murdered, maybe they were abused, maybe they just plain enjoy the things they do. One thing they all agree on though, is how much they all hate society. Their hatred of people, and by extension of that, their hatred of the people who continuously foil their plans: Superheroes.

Superheroes only serve to further ruin a villain's life, by beating them and putting them in jail. This leads to supervillains doing what they do best -- Getting revenge. However this is usually foiled yet again by the uppity heroes. Can't they give a villain a break?! Over time their hatred of humanity turns into a hatred of superheroes, so the villains return time and again, their thirst for revenge growing each encounter.

This all leads to some great comics, and that is what this post is all about. The evil things that villains do to the heroes who haunt them. Here is just a small list of the types of horrors that villains have concocted for their heroic counterparts.

1. The Joker trying to prove a point.

The Joker is perhaps the most psychotic villain ever. On any given day he can go from goofy clown to murderous psychopath. Unfortunately for Batman and his supporting cast, The Joker was in a psychopathic mood in the Killing Joke. In the comic, Joker kidnaps Commissioner Gordon, Batman's oldest ally, and in the process shoots and paralyzes Gordon's daughter Barbara, who is secretly Batgirl.

Joker brings Gordon to an abandoned amusement park, tortures him and forces him to view images of his daughter in various stages of undress, it is heavily implied the Joker molested her. This is all part of Joker's plan to show Batman that the world is inherently insane and therefore not worth saving. In other words Joker wants Batman to stop caring about what happens to the world so he can go about creating chaos in peace. However the Joker also hits Batman with the realization that they are basically the same. The product of "One bad day".


2. Green Goblin dropping Gwen Stacey off a bridge.

Gwen Stacey was the love of Peter Parker's life. They were the perfect couple, destined to be together forever. But then the Green Goblin returns, blaming everything that has gone wrong in his life, such as his financial ruin and his son Harry's drug abuse, on Spider-man. The Green Goblin kidnaps Gwen and brings her to the top of what seems to be George Washington Bridge. Spider-man follows them and a fight ensues. Just when Spider-man is getting the upper hand, the Goblin throws Gwen off of the bridge.

Spider-man tries to save her but when he pulls her up she is already dead. He is unsure whether the shock of the fall or the shock of her sudden stop had killed her. Peter is distraught at her death, the girl he loved is dead. Gwen's death would have repercussions on Peter for years to come. Even as far as the relatively recent "House of M" storyline where Peter is shown that his heart's desire was to have a family with Gwen. This causes him great distress, showing just how much an impact her death caused. All because the Green Goblin wanted revenge on Spider-man.

3. Mongul's "Black Mercy" Birthday present to Superman.

You'd think someones birthday would be an off-limits day, but some villains just don't care about boundaries. Indeed, Mongul orchestrated his attack to coincide with Superman's birthday. As if that wasn't bad enough, Mongul's "present" to Superman is a Black Mercy, a parasitic alien flower that sticks to your chest and pacifies you by feeding your brain with images of your hearts desire.

Not so bad, I hear you thinking, but it turns out that Superman's desire isn't to be a big shot superhero, but he'd rather live a quiet life back on Krypton with a wife who isn't Lois Lane. With some help, Superman fights off the Black Mercy and he is pissed with Mongul for forcing him face the realization that he doesn't really want the life he has. Superman uses his full power in an effort to punish Mongul. Eventually Mongul gets the Black Mercy trapped on his chest, showing us his desire, to take over the universe!


So there you have it, some of the worst things villains have done to their superhero counterparts. Don't feel too bad for them, they knew what they were getting into when they took up their tights.